Adding To The Din

North Is On The Air, But The Question Is: Who Isn't?

March 15, 1995

Oliver North now has his own radio program. We doubt if his show will enjoy the same success as Rush Limbaugh's program, but that is a compliment to Limbaugh, not a shot a North.

The arrival of North as a media personality does raise the question of market saturation. Limbaugh and Watergate alumnus G. Gordon Liddy, who has his own show, have capitalized on a wave of conservative anger. But that anger has produced results: a Republican takeover of Congress. North's timing seems suspect. Railing against Washington can't be as much fun when your party controls the legislature.

North can still blast away at Bill and Hillary Clinton and at Sen. Charles Robb, who defeated North in November. But how many people are there who have the time and interest to listen? Bashing Bill is old stuff, and if North tries to get too rough on Robb, he can be tagged as a sore loser.

The profusion of television talk programs has resulted in their downward spiral as each show competes for audiences by offering increasingly bizarre programming. We wonder if the profusion of conservative talk radio will result in a similar decline, sparked by a competition for audiences and marked by an acceptance of increasingly outrageous and vituperative attacks on politicians deemed "liberal." Time will tell.

But the liberals who have been the targets and victims of talk radio may one day have their revenge. A few more Republican landslides such as last November, and the airwaves could be filled by fallen Democrats railing against the meanness of the big shots in Washington. Maybe that explains Doug Wilder's recent entry into talk radio. The former governor is savvy enough to see an opening and move in.